More drilling has meant more crashes in Texas shale fields

The driver of a tanker truck was killed in a one-vehicle accident near Campbellton on U.S. 281 in 2012.

The driver of a tanker truck was killed in a one-vehicle accident near Campbellton on U.S. 281 in 2012.

Photo: Xavier J. Garcia /For The San Antonio Express-News

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State Highway 72 has become one of the state's most dangerous highways in the oil boom. The highway links small booming Eagle Ford towns.

State Highway 72 has become one of the state's most dangerous highways in the oil boom. The highway links small booming Eagle Ford towns.

Photo: /TX Department Of Public Safety

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Emergency crews remove the remains of a rig after a three-rig crash in 10miles east of Tilden on Texas 72. Two people were killed in the Mondaymorning crash. A tractor trailer rig driven by Ramiro Cavasos of Edinburgcrashed into two incoming rigs. Cavasos and Claude Leach, the driver of thesecond rig, died in the crash. The driver of the third rig was treated forserious internal injuries at University Hospital in San Antonio. COURTESY/xavier garcia less

Emergency crews remove the remains of a rig after a three-rig crash in 10miles east of Tilden on Texas 72. Two people were killed in the Mondaymorning crash. A tractor trailer rig driven by Ramiro Cavasos of ... more

Photo: COURTESY/xavier Garcia

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More drilling has meant more crashes in Texas shale fields

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The march of shale drilling across Texas has meant an increase in the number and severity of vehicle crashes in the state’s biggest oil fields.

A new study from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute links the upswing in oil drilling with vehicle crashes in the state’s major fields, the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and the Permian Basin in West Texas. It also shows a decline in natural gas drilling in the Barnett Shale in North Texas led to a drop in vehicle crashes there.

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The study’s lead author said the relationship between drilling and accidents was so clear that it’s predictive. This year’s low crude oil prices and diminished drilling mean accidents should taper in the 400-mile oil field south of San Antonio.

“If the price of oil stays low, chances are you’ll see something similar to what happened in the Barnett Shale,” said lead author Cesar Quiroga, senior research engineer and manager at the Transportation Institute’s San Antonio office. “The number of crashes will reduce substantially in the Eagle Ford Shale.”

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The study compared two periods of time, 2006 to 2009 — the years just before a boom in oil drilling took off in the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin — and 2010 to 2013, when the oil drilling bonanza was at a peak, but gas drilling in the Barnett went into decline.

The changes were most dramatic for commercial vehicles involved in crashes in rural areas.

In the Eagle Ford, the number of commercial vehicle crashes in rural areas increased 61 percent, to 4,542. The number of new wells rose 161 percent.

“What you can say is that five years ago in the Eagle Ford there was no industry other than agricultural,” said Quiroga. “What kind of industry appeared in the region? It was oil and gas.”

In the Permian, rural crashes involving a commercial vehicle rose to 3,743, up 52 percent. The number of new wells rose 61 percent.

During those same years when drilling and vehicle crashes were on the increase in the South and West Texas oil fields, natural gas prices tanked.

Commercial vehicle accidents in rural areas of the Barnett Shale, a natural gas field, dropped 34 percent, to 2,061. The number of new gas wells dropped 49 percent.

By comparison, the 175 Texas counties that aren’t in a shale field saw a 9 percent decrease in crashes in rural areas that involved commercial vehicles, while the number of new wells fell 36 percent.

The study also considered the economics of the crashes — an increase of $139 million in direct economic costs in the Eagle Ford and $176 million in the Permian Basin for things such as hospital charges, lost wages or lost productivity.

The economic price swells as high as $2 billion in each region for so-called “comprehensive costs,” a measure used by the U.S. Department of Transportation that considers both economic costs and the value of lost quality of life.

The latest numbers for 2014 weren’t part of the study because data from the Texas Railroad Commission about completed wells for that year are still preliminary, Quiroga said.

Previously, the Texas Department of Transportation has said that fatal and serious traffic accidents in the Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin increased in 2014, with 696 drivers killed across both regions and more than 8,600 accidents with a fatal or serious injury.

The early-morning hours are among the most dangerous times for driving. In the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin for the past few years, 5 a.m. has been the hour when more serious accidents occurred than any other time of day.

Omar Garcia, president and CEO of the industry group South Texas Energy & Economic Roundtable, said that safety is a goal for its members and their contractors, and that more fleets have added monitoring systems to record driver performance. The industry is trying to decrease the number of trucks on the road, with some companies reporting as much as a 40 percent drop in truck use.

“When you see an increase in activity in any region, it is everyone’s job to drive safely and responsibly,” Garcia said by email. “The oil and gas industry wants every person in South Texas to arrive home safely.”